Garmin GWS 10 vane failure

[Jerry66]

I've had trouble from day 1 with my Garmin GWS 10 vane falling off. The second day after installation I found the vane laying on the deck. I reinstalled and 3 days later it was missing. ( I figured that it fell overboard) I installed a new vane and it only lasted a couple of days. I asked the forum for advise and on the
replies I sent the whole unit back to Garmin under waranty. I installed the new mast head unit. and wow it lasted 3 weeks. I have been talking with Garmin
and the latest answer was (off the record) put some super glue on it. I cant be the only one having this problem? Does anyone have a fix? For the last installation the boat has been kept is a non bird area. Need help, I'm getting too old to keep going up and down the mast, I use a atn climber and its work.

Thanks for any help.

Jerry66

[NSboatman]

jerry-sorry, I don't have a solution, but I can assure you that you're not alone. Ours also failed and I was lucky to find the vane on the deck. however, I popped ours back on, thinking it a bit of a 'hail mary' ploy (surely it was going to come off again); but so far, after 2000 nm and up to 40 knots, it has stayed on. I know of 2 other folks who have had the same issue. I don't know why garmin hasn't dealt with this...

good luck- I'd try a little dab of 5200 on the shaft instead of super glue. that's what I'm going to do if it comes off again...

[Jerry66]

Thank you NS . I'm going to come up with something before I reinstall, these vanes
are around $30 and I have already bought 3 of them. I'm looking at cross drilling and installing a pin but the shaft the vane goes on is pretty small. Maybe someone has done something that has worked and is easy to due.

[nhschneider]

I installed an entire Garmin Electronics package (chartplotter, sailing instruments, radar, sonar, AIS) in 2010 and the wind sensor worked fine for about two years - then the blade for wind direction fell off. I put it back on with super glue.

However, now the entire GWS 10 seems to have died. Nothing shows up on any of my instruments that has anything to do with wind speed or direction. If I power everything down and then power it back up, the unit works for a while and then fails again. I hate the thought of spending US$1,600 on an Airmar unit but that might be the best way to go.

Fair winds and calm seas.

[Opie91]

Check out the Maretron WSO100. NMEA 200 and it around $600 USD.

Maretron NMEA 2000 Weather Station Sensor